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U.F.B.S.: First Ten Minutes

(Okay, according to Wikipedia the correct font for a screenplay is Courier. Some other websites say that it’s Courier New. I don’t know which is right. I’m going to just use regular Courier. At the time of this writing I am unsure if my original font in Word will transfer over to WordPress. We’ll see…

[It didn’t transfer in the right font. I think there is a way to correct this but we’ll have to worry about it later]

A few words here before we get going:

1) I don’t know what I’m doing. Go easy on me. I am assuming that I will get the format wrong but this here is the first draft and at this early point the goal is more to get the story out and right. There will be time later for straightening out the format.

2) I am pretty much just going to tell the story as best as I can from beginning to end. Some parts are more fleshed out than others. I will do my best to make it clear but this draft is NOT going to be perfect.

3) My commitment here is to do my best to stick to my original goals. Those would be to actually write this thing out. I will try to do at least 2 updates a week but right now I don’t know what this is going to look like as I’m actually doing it. I might get the stuff out quicker or slower.

4) Each post will be for about 10 minutes of screen time. I’ve read that normally with screenplays each page equals about one minute. I can’t guarantee these will all be that long. There’s a lot of information in some of these and it might take longer to unfold. Anyway, that’s just something to think about.

5) I think the bigger goal here is to have some fun and learn more about screenwriting as I go. I’m hoping that the experience for the reader will be enjoyable more than confusing.

Okay, go!)

First ten minutes.

Underwater Firefighters: The Movie

1) “Sancho is Dutiful”/ “Mick is a Fish Out of Water (Underwater)”

A light turns on in a room that appears to be a sort of training room with weights and a treadmill. Along the walls there are several round windows looking out into dark, deep ocean water. A white-haired man walks into the room with a broom and a dustpan in one hand and a kind of open tool box in the other. He seems to mean business.

He goes to the weight bench and scrubs it down with a cleaner and a towel. He Windexes the windows. He begins to sweep the floor and straighten up the room. He is doing all of this with an almost ridiculous amount of diligence and concentration. It is as if he has his cleaning techniques down to an art. He appears lost in his movements and it seems that he is enjoying himself pretty well.

When he is done he stands in the middle of the room and silently scans the room to see if he missed anything. He seems pleased with his work. Wait, there is a 5-pound weight out of place. He corrects it and then stands back and checks the room again. Looks good. He walks back out of the room and it is framed exactly as it was at first only now it is spotless.

The light turns back off (we return to black).

We are suddenly moving sideways underneath a bed. There are several candy wrappers and trash items on the floor. We get to the end of the bed and a bare foot lands directly in front of the camera, followed by the other foot. The feet seem to stretch for a beat and then we hear the owner yawn.

The feet begin walking to the right and the camera pivots to follow, then tracks behind the feet as the walk out of the bedroom, down a hall and into a bathroom. Suddenly the feet are directly in front of the toilet and as we hear the peeing sound the toes react.

The toilet flushes and the camera pans up as the figure begins to wash his hands. We are behind him as the camera rises and stops where we can see his face in the mirror. He is a man in his late thirties with red hair. He is looking at himself silently as if he is silently judging the face in the mirror. His judgement is unclear. He is undecided about himself.

Next we see the first guy again. This time he is in a loocker room with only one small row of lockers. He walks over into a closet and we see several of what look like scuba diving suits. The man goes to take a closer look at a tag inside the collar of one of the suits. It reads: “Flame Retardant…” He puts a check mark on a piece of paper on a clipboard in his hands. He goes to check some oxygen tanks, hoses, flippers, fishing nets. Prehaps he finds something to be damaged. He makes a note.

We are now looking at a fire hydrant with small windows. A bright orange fish swims by and we realize that we are looking into the murky waters of a fish tank that badly needs a cleaning. There is a small figure of a man swimming in scuba gear floating in the water with a hose in one hand that is attached to the fire hydrant/base.

Second Guy (Mick): I’m sorry, Sparky… I forgot to feed you.

He drops some fish food into the tank which the fish swims up to eat.

He walks into a small kitchen that is filled with dirty dishes and he finds a box of Pop Tarts in a cabinet. He opens the package and puts them in the toaster. He yawns as he finds a clean plate and glass (which he fills with milk). He begins to brew some coffee.

The first guy walks in quietly. They grunt uninterestedly to each other. The first guy looks at the stack of dishes and makes a grunt that sounds like a question. The second guy grunts back to him in reply. They seem to understand each other. The first guy leaves. The second guy respectfully starts to clean some dishes.

The Pop Tarts pop up. The second guy makes a grunt that sounds like excitement

Now we’re in back in the living room where the fish tank was. (For the purposes of the screenplay I will go ahead and say that the first guy is Sancho and the second guy is Mick. In this first ten minute part where they mainly just mumble they are seen more as silent figures moving through the rooms. It’s as if they are not fully formed characters just yet. As they are waking up they come closer into focus).